Labour condemns Tories for racially charged attack on Sadiq Khan

Labour has accused the Conservatives of adopting racially charged “dog-whistle” politics after a local election leaflet warned that the influence of Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, could mean suburbs becoming increasingly “inner city”, with the union flag removed from public buildings.

The flyer, produced by Conservatives in Havering, on the eastern edge of Greater London, warns that if Labour win in May’s local polls, it would result in “Havering resembling boroughs like Hackney, Newham, Camden and Barking, rather than traditional parts of Essex”.

Other warnings on the leaflet, which features the three local Conservative councillors and Andrew Rosindell, the local Tory MP, include the claim that a Labour win would mean “Havering ruled by Mayor Khan”.

This would lead Romford, the main centre in Havering to “become increasingly like an inner-city area” with “our cherished union jack flag being taken down – back to Labour’s political correctness”, it said.

David Lammy, the Labour MP for Tottenham, called the leaflet “one long dog whistle about race”, saying it marked a return to the controversial tactics used against Khan when he defeated Zac Goldsmith to become mayor in May 2016.

Goldsmith was heavily criticised, including by some Conservatives, for repeatedly raising what he said were Khan’s previous links to extreme Muslim figures and for not being sufficiently tough on Islamist terrorism.

Andrew Boff, a senior London Conservative, said Goldsmith’s tactics, which were supported by David Cameron, then the prime minister, and his ministers, had “done real damage” to community relations.

Lammy said: “This is a really nasty leaflet from the Tory party in London and a return to the deeply divisive politics that failed so spectacularly during the 2016 mayoral campaign.

“You don’t have to be a genius to realise this leaflet is one long dog whistle about race and the diversity that the vast majority of Londoners are so proud of. The Tory party clearly haven’t changed. Theresa May should condemn this leaflet and apologise to all Londoners immediately.”

Rosindell has raised culture-based arguments before. Writing in his local newspaper at the end of last year, he described Havering as “a borough that upholds our traditions in celebrating St George’s day, armed forces day and proudly flies the union jack from our town hall 365 days of the year”.

He added: “The choice for the people of Havering in next year’s town hall elections is whether we want to keep what we have and retain the special character of Havering or allow ourselves to become just another lump of Sadiq Khan’s inner London.”

Rosindell said he rejected the idea of any bias, saying the leaflet did not mention race and was only seeking to raise awareness of high-density building projects that could take place under a Labour-run council.

“Havering is a very happy community with almost no racial tensions,” he said. “If Labour are attempting to deliberately misinterpret campaigns against the mayor’s policies on closing police stations and high-density building as a race issue then they should be ashamed in doing so.

“Havering is not inner London and his policies should reflect the needs of outer London areas too, but he neglects areas like Havering.”

Other Labour MPs have been angered by the approach adopted by some Conservatives towards Khan.

Earlier this month, Nadine Dorries, the Conservative MP, quoted a tweet by the mayor calling for action on hate speech, saying: “How about, ‘it’s time to act on sex abusing grooming gangs,’ instead?” adding tags related to the abuse scandals in Telford and Rotherham.

This prompted Wes Streeting, the Labour MP for Ilford North, to accuse Dorries of expressing “thinly veiled prejudice”.

Late last year, Conservative councillors in another outer London borough, Barnet, discussed a motion describing Khan as “an enemy of the people of Barnet”.

Arjun Mittra, a Labour member of the council, condemned the term as “deeply historically loaded” and reminiscent of Goldsmith’s campaign.